The University of Arizona Press
November 4, 2019
This week, November 3 through 9, is University Press Week. UP Week, as we call it, has its roots in a 1978 proclamation by President Jimmy Carter “in recognition of the impact, both here and abroad, of American university presses on culture and scholarship.” It has grown into a worldwide celebration.
This year our theme for UP Week speaks to the current moment: “Read. Think. Act.” Citizens around the globe are engaging in important debates that will influence vital decision-making in the months ahead. University presses offer the latest peer-reviewed research on issues that affect our present and future. By reading widely about politics, economics, climate science, race relations, and more, we can all better understand these complex issues and appreciate university presses’ important contributions to our world.
From the University of Arizona Press alone you can find books to better understand the fires raging in California, like Stephen Pyne’s California: A Fire Survey, or to go beyond pundits’ sound bites to explore the very human issue of immigration through books like The Border and Its Bodies. Science Be Dammed offers a cautionary narrative in the age of climate change about the risks of ignoring scientific research and Yolqui offers a deeply personal meditation on the culture of violence against Red-Black-Brown communities in the United States.
And we are just one of the Association of University Presses’ 151-member presses, which together publish more than 13,000 books each year—books that advance knowledge and encourage thoughtful action. You can learn more about our work as it’s celebrated during University Press Week—and download a copy of our “Read. Think. Act. Reading List”—at universitypressweek.org.
—Kathryn Conrad, UA Press Director
Conrad currently serves as the President of the Association of American University Presses board of directors. Listen to Conrad explain more about UP Week in a podcast interview she did recently with New Books Network:
